In the manufacture of silver halide color photographic light-sensitive materials, it is a frequent practice that hydrophilic colloidal layers such as photographic emulsion layers are colored in order to absorb a specific wave length.
A colored layer known as an antihalation layer may also be provided in order to prevent a picture image from being shaded, or to prevent halation. Halation is caused as follows: light is scattered when or after it passes through a photographic emulsion layer and is reflected at the interface between the emulsion layer and its support or at the surface of a light-sensitive material opposite the emulsion layer, and then enters the photographic emulsion layer again. In cases where a plurality of photographic emulsion layers exist, an antihalation layer is sometimes placed between two of the layers.
The hydrophilic colloidal layers to be colored generally contain a dye. The dye must satisfy the following requirements:
(1) it must have a spectral absorption suitable for the purpose of use, PA1 (2) it must be photochemically inactive, i.e., must result in no adverse chemical effects, such as deteriorated sensitivity, regression of latent image, or fogging, on the performance of a silver halide photographic emulsion layer, PA1 (3) it must not leave a harmful stain on a processed photosensitive material by discoloration during a photographic processing, or by leaching out of the material into a process liquid or washing water, PA1 (4) it must not diffuse from a layer in which the dye is incorporated into another layer, and PA1 (5) it must have excellent stability over time while in a solution or a photographic material, never causing color fading. PA1 at least one compound selected from the members consisting of the compounds represented by the following formulas (2) and (3): EQU A.sup.1 .dbd.L--Q (2) EQU A.sup.1 .dbd.L--A.sup.2 ( 3) PA1 A! a silver halide color photographic light-sensitive material comprising a support having thereon photographic constituting layers comprising at least one light-sensitive silver halide emulsion layer containing a yellow coupler, at least one light-sensitive silver halide emulsion layer containing a magenta coupler, at least one light-sensitive silver halide emulsion layer containing a cyan coupler, and at least one light-insensitive hydrophilic colloidal layer, wherein at least one layer of said photographic constituting layers comprises at least one compound represented by formula (1) and at least one of the compounds represented by formulas (2) and (3), each compound being in a dispersion form of solid fine particles, PA1 at least one magenta coupler contained in said light-sensitive silver halide emulsion layer containing the magenta coupler is a compound represented by the following formula (M-I):
Particularly, when a colored layer is an antihalation layer placed on the same side of a support as a photographic emulsion layer, it is often required that the colored layer be selectively colored and other layers not be substantially colored. Otherwise, the other layers will be affected by a harmful spectral effect. In addition, the effect as the antihalation layer will be reduced. However, when the layer containing a dye contacts other hydrophilic colloidal layers under wet conditions, part of the dye sometimes diffuses from the former layer into the latter layers.
Hitherto, great efforts have been made in order to prevent diffusion of a dye.
For example, there have been disclosed a method in which, together with a dissociated anionic dye, a hydrophilic polymer with the opposite electrical charge is incorporated as a mordanting agent into a specific layer or layers to localize the dye in the layer(s) by the interaction between the molecules of the dye and the polymer (U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,548,564, 4,124,386, and 3,525,694); a method in which a specific layer is dyed using fine particles of a salt of a metal to which a dye has been adsorbed (for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,719,088, 2,496,841, and 2,496,843, and JP-A-60-45,237); and a method in which a specific layer is dyed with a solid dye insoluble in water (JP-A-55-120,030, JP-A-56-12,639, JP-A-55-155,350, JP-A-56-155,351, JP-A-63-27,838, JP-A-63-197,943, JP-A-52-92,716, European Patent Application Nos. 15601, 323,729, 274,723, 276,566, and 299,435A, and WO 88/04794). Among these, the method of dyeing a specific layer with a solid dye is superior in that diffusion is prevented. This method, however, has drawbacks with respect to photographic performance (low color density, residual color when a sample is treated after passage of time, effects on photographic sensitivity, etc.), because the solid dye must be added in large amounts to a photosensitive material due to its low absorption per unit weight. In addition, there are other drawbacks due to the low speed of decoloration during a developing process. Thus, the decoloring function cannot necessarily be fully obtained when changes have been made in various factors including speed-up of the process, improvement in the composition of a processing liquid, or improvement in the composition of a photographic emulsion composition.
In silver halide color photographic light-sensitive materials having at least one blue sensitive silver halide emulsion layer, at least one green sensitive silver halide emulsion layer, and at least one red sensitive silver halide emulsion layer, it is preferred that a dye for antihalation has a wide range of absorption from 400 to 700 nm. Examples of such a dye include 1) combined use of a monomethine pyrazolone oxonole dye and a pentamethyne pyrrazolone oxonole dye (JP-A-52-92,716), 2) combined use of an arylidene dye or a monomethine pyrazolone oxonole dye and a pentamethine barbituric oxonole dye (JP-A-63-27,838) and 3) a single use of a pyrazolopyridone oxonole dye (JP-A-2-282,244).
However, when the inventors of the present invention prepared a silver halide photographic light-sensitive material having an antihalation layer based on the examples described in the above publications, it was found that combined dyes 1) described above resulted in a great reduction in the color density after a developing process compared with the case where an antihalation layer is not provided, that combined dyes 2) could not provide desired sharpness because the dyes are not securely fixed in the antihalation layer, leading to deteriorated sensitivity, and that single dye 3) cannot yield sufficient yellow sharpness and reduces the color density after a developing process.